stormtigers

Since I bought the Coupe I have had a problem that was so irregular in it's appearance that it made it almost impossible to resolve.

Basically on odd occasions and with no discernible regularity, when I jumped back into the car the starter just wouldnt go. '
No clicks, no noise no nothing. Everything worked fine apart form no start.

I replaced the bushes on the transmission which were badly worn but that had no effect (i.e car thinking it wasnt in park or neutral).'
I checked and double checked the voltage regulator - plenty of meat on the bushes etc.

What would happen though is if you put jumper cables on it would start !

Now that would seem to indicate battery first and foremost but after having it checked by the mobile battery service of the Roadside Assist guys, they said the battery was fine.
Yes volts were up around 12.3/12.4 and charging appeared fine.

Last weekend I volunteered to serve as sweeper for a "Cruise Day"here in Melbourne seeing as my car was younger than the fleet (1960/1970\s Mercedes).
Damned if after starting fine that morning, no appearance of the starter when we went to leave the assembly point.
Quick jump start and foine all the way up to the first stop. Started again fine also.
A slow U-turn at one point with very low idle (due for service/tune) she stalled half way through the turn.
Again no start.
Another jump and off she went and performed faultlessly for the rest of the day.

So you could see the hard to resolve nature of the problem.

After some reading and a recent post on the other joint (bw) plus a Kent whats-his-name video showed checking the CCA value of what were seemingly good batteries.

So a battery can show sufficient volts and appear to charge but it's CA value can diminish quite considerably.
And whilst the battery for all intents appeared okay, it had lost it's ability to kick the starter with enough amps for start to occur.

Armed with that I ventured down to the auto electrician.
Sure enough the battery was only doing about 480CCA when she needs well over 600.
And that was with a voltmeter showing 12.4 dropping to 10.6 when starting.

So the importance of batteries cannot be stressed enough.

For my 3 litre coupe the recommmended size is 12V-74AH-680A (CCA).

The replacement I put in (pic below) is 12V- 680 CCA with RC 154 MINUTES which approximately equates to 77AH.

Hopefully problem solved !



And here she was, all dressed up and ready to roll !